Elite Swine Becomes Maple Leaf Agri-Farms

Elite Swine is the pork production company of Canada's Maple Leaf Foods, but it has now been renamed Maple Leaf Agri-Farms. It's the most recent step in the company's reorganization, announced last October, in which it has said it will refocus on value-added meat and meals.

Maple Leaf officials have said they would reduce the number of hogs it produces or manages, while transitioning to 100 percent ownership of fewer barns.

Other actions that have occurred as part of the reorganization involve closing slaughter and processing facilities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia, including primary processing plants in Saskatoon and Winnipeg. The company also halted plans to build a new Saskatoon pork plant.

Elite Swine transitioned from the Elite Swine Management Program, which Landmark Feeds launched in 1982. It since became Canada's largest swine management company. Maple Leaf acquired Landmark Feeds in 1999. In May, it sold the company and other animal nutrition businesses to Dutch firm Nutreco.

Maple Leaf Agri-Farms will now be run as an "independent operating company" of Maple Leaf Foods, according to a company news release.